Album List: Folk/Alt Country

Folk /Alt-Country (slower music with a message) 

·         Allison Krauss – not really into this too much, but a good album with former Led Zepplin front man Robert Plant [Raising Sand (2010)]

·         Amos Lee – singer songwriter adult music that has seen life [Mission Bell (2011)]

·         The Avett Brothers – My favorite band in this genre.  This is alt-country with heart of former Nirvana-loving brothers with outstanding musicianship over banjo/guitar/piano/cello/bass/drums or whatever is needed to let the heart sing [Country Was (2002), Carolina Jubilee (2003), Mignonette (2004), Live Volume 2 (2005), Four Thieves Gone (2006), The Gleam (2006), Emotionalism (2007), The Second Gleam (2007), I and Love and You (2009), Live, Volume 3 (2010), The Carpenter (2012)]

·         The Beach Boys – It’s all about Brian Wilson’s pathos on Pet Sounds, the other stuff is fun but a coverup of this man’s despair and loneliness that I find enthralling.  That is why they are here and not pop to me.  Harmonies that have never been duplicated.  [Pet Sounds (1966) , The Greatest Hits Volume 1 (1999)]

·         Ben Harper  - high-voiced soul rock showing pain and heart [Live From Mars (2001)]

·         Billy Bragg – British Bob Dylan with less blues and more of the folk [Must I Paint You A Picture?: The Essential Billy Bragg (2010)]

·         Billy Bragg & Wilco – Woody Guthrie homage side project of two genre juggernauts  [Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions 1-3 (2012)]

·         Blind Melon – highly influential life cut short band of depression and peering out [Best of Blind Melon (2005)]

·         Bob Dylan – Folk-icon, Blues-icon, Rock-icon greatest singer/songwriter ever, has folk albums, blues songs, Christian albums, Country albums and does what Bob wants to do, his voice going to an ashtray at this point in his career is just another instrument. [Bob Dylan (1962), The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963), The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 (1963), The Times They Are A-Chanin’ (1964), Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964), Bring It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Blonde On Blonde (1966), John Wesley Harding (1967), Nashville Skyline (1969), New Morning (1970), Planet Waves (1974), Blood on the Tracks (1975), Street Legal (1978), Slow Train Coming (1979), Saved (1980), Shot Of Love (1981), Infidels (1983), Oh Mercy (1989), The Bootleg Series Volume 1-3 1961-1991 (1991), Good As I Been To You (1992), World Gone Wrong (1993), Time Out Of Mind (1997), The Essential Bob Dylan (2000), Love and Theft (2001), Modern Times (2006)]

·         Brandi Carlile – Indigo-girls esque singer songwriter with heart and amazing voice who can belt it [The Story (2007), Live At Benaroya Hall (2011), Bear Creek (2012)]

·         Bruce Springsteen – A sexier Bob Dylan who can let it loose, but get just as dark, if not darker on the working man’s life.  Dylan and Springsteen each took Woody Guthrie to complementary pinnacles.  Nebraska and the Darkness on the Edge of Town, The Ghost of Tom Joad albums go deep, others rock out with the message further in the background.  Icon. [Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. (1973), The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle (1973), The Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978), Born To Run (1983), Nebraska (1984), Born In The USA (1984), The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995), Tracks (1988), The Rising (2002), The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003), Live In Dublin with the Sessions Band (2007), Wrecking Ball (2012)]

·         Carolina Chocolate Drops – African spiritual folk [Genuine Negro Jig (2010)]

·         The Civil Wars – male/female dual singer enchanting folk [Barton Hollow (2011)]

·         Counting Crows – Poetic-loneliness folk/rock [August and Everything After (1993), Recovering The Satelites (1996), Across A Wire: Live in New York (1998), This Desert Life (1999), Hard Candy (2002), Films About Ghosts (2004), Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings (2008), Underwater Sunshine (2012) ]

·         Dan Pothast/ The Stitch Up- singer/songwriter of heart-filled rock stories, last album is more rocksteady [Eyeballs (1999), Attitude Adjuster (2007), Watch Where You Walk (2011)]

·         The Decembrists – Northwestern writer-thesaurus folk/rock full of stories [Castaways and Cutouts (2002). Her Majesty The Decembrists (2003), Picaresque (2005), The Crane Wife (2006), Hazards of Love (2009), The King is Dead (2011), We All Raise Our Voices To the Air Live (2012)]

·         Doc Watson – greatest picker banjo folk icon [The Essential Doc Watson (1990)]

·         Eddie Vedder – solo projects of Pearl Jam’s frontman slowed down w/heart [Music For the Motion Picture Into the Wild (2007), Ukele Songs (2011)]

·         Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes – alt/country wandering adult folk/rock [Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes (2009), Home (2012)]

·         Elvis Costello – British Paul Simon w/ less folk [The Best of Elvis Costello (2007)]

·         Fountains of Wayne – slower nerd rock sort of fun [Fountains of Wayne (1996)]

·         The Gaslight Anthem – Springsteen influenced American rock/folk [The ’59 Sound (2008), American Slang (2010), Handwritten (2012)]

·         Hank Williams – country/alt splitting icon [American Legends No 18 – (1996)]

·         The Head and The Heart – emo folk/rock [The Head and The Heart (2011)]

·         Indigo Girls – dual-singer college –educated folk/rock storytellers [Playlist: The Very Best of the Indigo Girls ()]

·         Jack Johnson – cute-album I found from being a dad, I am not a big fan of the rest of his stuff, but this album is good for young parents [Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies For the Film Curious George (2006)]

·         Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Drive By Truckers front man side project alt/country solo style [Here We Rest (2011)]

·         John Lennon – my favorite of his solo stuff cover songs of Chuck Berry, Fat’s Domino and Sam Cooke [Rock N’ Roll (1975)]

·         John Prine – an alt-country sort of Bob Dylan-story teller working man who can write [John Prine (1971), Prime Prine (1976), In Person & On Stage (2010)]

·         Johnny Cash – The icon of alt-country of the downtrodden dealing with real-life and living it fully [At Folsom Prison (1968), 16 Biggest Hits (1999), Johnny Cash Collection (2003), Country Legend (2004), The Legend of Johnny Cash (2005), America V – A Hundred Highways (2006)]

·         Justin Towns Earle – Son of Steve Earle, young guy with amazing acoustic guitar skills and can write real-life lyrics [Yuma (2007), The Good Life (2008), Midnight at the Movies (2010), Harlem River Blues (2011), Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way you feel about me now (2012)]

·         Laura Marling – British folk singer with songs of loneliness and poetry [Alas I Cannot Swim (2008), I Speak Because I Can (2010), A Creature I Don’t Know (2011)]

·         Leonard Cohen – darker brooding Dylan-style with thicker songs and haunting voice [The Essential Leonard Cohen (2002)]

·         The Lumineers – new folk band with heart [The Lumineers (2012)]

·         The Magnetic Fields – almost indie, but a solid album for what the title says [69 Love Songs Volume 1 (1999)]

·         Mike Doughty – former Soul Coughing lead singer who did something totally different after escaping drug addiction, great lyrics, sort of indie, guitar solo style on most of it, has that hip-hop poet rhythm piece in the back of a lot of songs [Skittish / Rockity Roll (2004), Haughty Melodic (2005), Golden Delicious (2008), Sad Man Happy Man (2009), Dubious Luxury (2011), Yes and Also Yes (2011), The Question Jar Show (2012), The Flip Is Another Honey (2012)]

·         Mumford & Sons – British folk explosion on the world stage with lyrics that hit the heart and pull at your humanity [Sigh no More (2010), Babel (2012)]

·         My Name is John Michael – outstanding lead singer with excellent musicianship from New Orleans, rock, horns, even a garbage can [The People That Come and Go (2009)]

·         Neutral Milk Hotel – indie/alt folk [In The Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)]

·         Noah and the Whale – British Counting Crows [Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down (2008), The First Days of Spring (2009), Last Night on Earth (2011)]

·         Of Monsters And Men – indie/folk [My Head is an Animal (2012)]

·         Paul Simon – singer/songwriter icon, the Puerto Rican Bob Dylan who can command the world stage and embrace complex songs that appear effortless [Graceland (1986), The Essential Paul Simon (2010), Live In New York City (2012])

·         Ray LaMontagne – Seen the underbelly of life, emotional left for dead folk/blues that has seen the darkness and come back [Trouble (2004), Till The Sun Turns Back (2006), Gossip In the Grain (2008), God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise (2010)]

·         Rodriguez – Hispanic homeless man folk [Searching For Sugar Man (2012)]

·         Ryan Bingham – former bull rider alt/country knuckle up with a middle finger Johnny Cash influenced rock [Mescalito (2007), Roadhouse Sun (2009), Junky Star (2010), Tomorrowland (2012)]

·         Sara Jarosz – Americana folksinger [Follow Me Down (2011)]

·         Simon & Garfunkel – iconic folk duo [The Best of Simon & Garfunkel (1999)]

·         The Tallest Man On Earth – solitary folk gray songs [There’s No Leaving Now (2012)]

·         Timothy Seth Avett as Darling – side singer/songwriter project of co-front man of the Avett Brothers [The Mourning, The Silver, The Bell (2006), Killing The Headlamps (2009), To Make The World Quiet (2009)]

·         Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman – post project for Rage Against the Machine guitarist, Occupy Wall Street politically conscious rock/folk [World Wide Rebel Songs (2011)]

·         Wilco – pathos rock/ heavy Beatles influenced former alt-country twang and loneliness overwhelming reaching out to the world loneliness [A.M. (1995), Being There (1996), Summerteeth (1999), Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), A Ghost Is Born (2004), Sky Blue Sky (2007), Wilco (2009), The Whole Love (2011)]

·         The Wild – Spirited unity folk/rock protest and come together music [Set Ourselves Free (), A Collection (2011)]

·         Willie Nelson – country/alt icon with enough Johnny Cash punk for me [Super Hits (1994)]

·         Woody Guthrie – The man that started it all of the alt-country/punk/singer songwriter genre.  Woody is the foundation of Dylan, Springsteen and Johnny Cash [This Land is Your Land: The Asch Recordings, Vol. 1 (1997), Muleskinner Blues: The Asch Recordings, Vol 2 (1997), Hard Travelin’: The Asch Recordings, Vol. 3 (1998), Buffalo Skinners: The Asch Recordings, Vol 4 (1999) ] 

 

Compilations

·         Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine – (2010)

·         Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark – Together At The Bluebird Café (2001)

·         Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International (2012) 

·         Walk the Line [Original Soundtrack] (2005) 

The John Prine one is other bands covering his songs which is excellent.  The Bluebird Café are three pillars of Folk.  The Chimes of Freedom is awesome for a Dylan fan, but in most cases they can’t touch the originals, but the funds go to a great cause.  The Johnny Cash soundtrack is a good homage to the man.